Red Wings Down Ducks in OT After Third-Period Collapse

Gustav Nyquist lifted the Detroit Red Wings over the Anaheim Ducks early in overtime on Thursday night, giving Detroit a much-needed Game Two win after they allowed three third-period goals to erase a 4-1 lead.

The Ducks scored a trio of goals in under ten minutes to force overtime but Detroit’s fourth goal in the first two minutes of a period – and third on a carry-over penalty – was enough to secure the win.

At 1:21 of the overtime, Valtteri Filppula faked around Anaheim’s Corey Perry in the left faceoff circle and found a lane to shovel a pass across to Nyquist on the opposite side for a quick wrister past neminder Jonas Hiller. The goal came with under two seconds remaining in a Detroit power play.

Justin Abdelkader had opened the scoring only 48 seconds into the game, flipping a shot from the high slot that was tipped by the stick of defenseman Francois Beauchemin to confuse Hiller.

Damien Brunner made it 2-0 at 4:20 of the first. Off a turnover in the Ducks’ zone, Kyle Quincey poked the puck to Brunner all alone in the slot to snap past Hiller.

Johan Franzen’s first of the night put the Red Wings up by three at 1:04 of the second period. Camped out on the edge of the crease, Franzen banged home the rebound of a Henrik Zetterberg chance for Detroit’s first power play goal of the night.

Saku Koivu got the Ducks on the board with a power play goal of their own with 9:07 remaining in the middle period. Off the rebound of a Teemu Selanne shot, Koivu kicked the puck towards the goal and got his stick on it before it crossed the line to tap it in.

Franzen’s second of the night made it 4-1 just 20 seconds into the third period as he drove to the side of the net and reached around Hiller to stuff it in the far side.

Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf started his team’s comeback at 7:50 of the third, backhanding a shot from the edge of the right faceoff circle through Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard to make it 4-2.

Kyle Palmieri snapped a shot from the left circle past Howard just after the expiration of an Anaheim power play with 7:29 remaining to pull the Ducks within a goal.

The comeback was complete with Bobby Ryan’s goal with 2:22 remaining. Cam Fowler had the puck in the left wing corner and sent it out front to Ryan for a tip past Howard, evening things up at 4-4.

The Red Wings finished the night with three power play goals on six chances with the extra attacker while the Ducks scored once on five tries.

Howard made 28 saves on 32 shots against in earning the win. Hiller stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced.

With the Red Wings having earned a split of the opening games in Anaheim, the series now shifts to Detroit for Game Three on Saturday night.

---

Todd Bertuzzi made his first appearance in the Detroit lineup since February xxx, returning from a back injury to replace Jordin Tootoo on the fourth line… After the game, Detroit head coach Mike Babcock announced that rookie defenseman Danny DeKeyser would miss the remainder of the playoffs with a broken thumb.